Our Vision

My photo
P.O. Box 620170, Kalomo, Zambia
Our vision is to bring the love of Jesus Christ to the children of Zambia through physical and spiritual means.Our hearts longing is to empower the local church and village community to meet the great need of the many orphans and widows through the development of an orphanage.(Psalm 68:5-6a)

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Olivia and The Difference a 1 Year Volunteer Can Make

WeWell Drilling June 2013 100 first met Olivia at a missions conference in the States and while none of us knewOlivia Ruth at that time that things that God had in store, we were blessed to have Olivia serve here with us from August 2012 – August 2013.  When first inquiring about what she might be doing we gave Olivia several possible areas of ministry and asked her to pray about what areas she thought God might be leading her to do, advising her to start small at first.  In the end, her impact was far greater than we ever could have imagined.  Here is just a glimpse of what God was able to accomplish through her in the course of 1 year:

- Weekly training with the housemothers –  Dec 2012 111 working from a curriculum called “Offering Hope and Healing to Children in Crisis” by Rainbows of Hope Olivia taught the mothers about childhood development and how trauma (such as loosing parents, being passed from caregiver to caregiver, being sick with HIV/AIDS) can affect children.  It focused how to care for each child’s emotional, mental and spiritual development, and how to deal with challenging behaviors.  Every week the mothers looked forward to having Olivia help them problem solve some situation they were dealing with and they had good laughs and fun times learning how to fill each child’s love cup in unique and special ways.  It was neat to see the mothers bonding differently with each child and to see the affect that this training was having on these housemothers and the children God had given them. 

- Weekly Bible Study with the housemothersDec 2012 118 The highlight of each week for the housemothers definitely was this.  While all of our housemothers profess to be Christians, in the village very little teaching in done on the Old Testament and so their knowledge of God is limited.  Starting with women of the Old Testament like Ruth and Esther, the mothers easily related to the stories and were excited to see how they were going to progress and what God was going to do in each of their situations. Then when Olivia moved onto “Firm Foundations” (a curriculum developed by New Tribes Mission that teaches the Bible through chronological story telling) the mom’s really became excited as they began to see God, His truths and workings in the Old Testament in a whole new light.  During these 2 hour sessions, Olivia and the mothers prayed for one another and we often had them coming to us saying “Ah – the teaching was very good today.  We are learning so much!:  Of all the things that the mom’s asked to continue when Olivia left, this was their biggest request.

- Tutoring of the children- DSC_0004 Olivia’s background is in elementary education so when she learned that many of our children were having difficulty in school, she eagerly took up the opportunity to spend some extra time with them tutoring them.  We asked her to focus on two children in particular – Sylvester (aka Junior) who had failed a few years back and who we were hoping to send to Kalomo for higher education in a year and Precious, who although she was 15 and in grade 6 at the time was probably only functioning on a first or second grade level.  With the help of Travis, Olivia set up a program for four days a week focusing on math, reading, and English, starting at the foundation and then progressing from there.  There children not only loved the attention and one on one time but it was great to see their self confidence build and to see them realize that they were not dumb and could learn.  Their hard work definitely paid off because after the year Precious did increase her understanding and competency by several grade levels and Sylvester graduated and tested #1 at his school for grade 7 (a huge accomplishment!).  She did not stop there though but also helped the younger school aged children weekly with their reading and English so all of the children were happy.  Olivia Ennie

- Teaching English and Reading to  local women and housemothers-   while this started at the request of some of the housemothers who were illiterate or who knew little English, it quickly became known to woman of the community who asked if they could attend.  This was a great time of laughter, fun and learning enjoyed by all and not only built and solidified relationships (discipling and encouraging the woman as God allowed) but it helped many woman get closer to their goal of reading the Bible for themselves.

- Helping with weekly Children’s Church-  due to lackKara 2012 351 of education, resources, and fear that they don’t have what it takes, very few churches in the area have anything special to offer the children in the church.  While some do attend, they rarely get the message that is being preached and so with the help of Alyssa and Travis, Olivia took on the task, not only of teaching the children at the church but also training up local leaders who would continue when she left.  It was great to hear the children singing, acting out Bible stories, playing games, and learning about God in a way that Dec 2012 175they could relate to,  In the course of her year here they even did several service projects-  building benches for the children's meeting outside, fixing benches in the church, and picking up trash outside, even despite local drunk men teasing them.  To see them putting what they were learning into action was proof that their labor of love was producing fruit.  At Christmas time, under Olivia’s guidance, they even put together a Christmas Nativity for the church which was greatly enjoyed by all

-Getting Others Involved- DSCN055112-001 Not only did Olivia have people praying, supporting, encouraging and following her during the year that she was here but her being here also enabled her family to be able to come visit and help for a few weeks.  While here her mother Joyce was busy organizing donated clothing, mending clothes for the children’s home, building relationships, and getting to experience the impact that Olivia had made while here.  Her father Brian used his practical skills to build a large wooden entertainment center for the children’s home to house the TV (to help them with their English), toys, and books.  These were all things that had been on our “to do” list for a while but that we hadn’t had time to do.  It was great to see Olivia sharing her love for the people here while her parents got to experience first hand the things they had only heard or read about before.

- A Ministry of Love-  Aug - Nov 2012 035 While there was many other thingsKara 2012 192 that Olivia was involved in, helping with volunteers and projects around camp, helping at the preschool, having girls night for the older children at the children’s home, playing with the toddlers, tending to medical needs of those in the community, going up to the children’s home any time she could just to spend time together or praying for someone in need – whatever Olivia did, she did it with deep genuine love.  The year she was here gave her a chance to really know and invest in the people here and because of that people have been changed and a legacy has been left.  Thank you Olivia for helping others learn more about God and for showing them God’s love in action.  To see more pictures of Olivia and her time here visit https://picasaweb.google.com/missionoflovezambia/Olivia

1 comment:

Alyssa 'Sindisiwe' said...

Love her! So proud of all she accomplished for God's kingdom!!